News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-24
DRIVEN FROM HOME.
The Curtin Girls Forced to Give Up
Their Farm.

between the Curtin family, OF MolahaHe,
near Tralee, county Kerry. have been
revived. Ever since the murder OF old
Mr.. Curtin, in Novemb T, 1885, the bit
ter feeling against his family has IN
creased. Unable to stand the strain any
longer, the children of the murdered
man decided to give up the lease OF the
1arm and to move to another part OF Tue
country, Notices have now been post
ed at Fries, Molahaffe and lralee'
warning all persons against taking the
| Curtin farm under penalty OF enjoying
the same boycott as the Curtlns nave
| suffered from during the last year.
THE CRIME.
Early in November, 1885, twelve
masked moonlighters broke into the
house of Mr.. Curtin, a small Kerry
farmer, who was president of the MoIa-
haffe branch of the National League
The Curtin family consisted of the
father, who was sixty-ive years OF age,
two sons and two daughters. When
the house was attacked the Curtlns had
gone to bed. The moonHghters oe-
manded all the arms in the house. Inc
life of Daniel Curtin. one of the sons,
was threatened if he did not dis
close where the weapons were concealed.
He managed to mislead the moonlight
ers, and gave the rest of the family a
chance to arm themselves and attack
the invaders. A desperate fight ensued,
in which the elder Curtin was shot and
killed, and a ''moonlighter, subse-
quently identified as neighbor named
Sullivan, was MORALLY wounded. Sew
eral of the other ''moonlighters" were
more or less hurt, and many of them
were identified by the Curtin girls, who
took an activs part in the struggle and
succeeded in tearing the masks from the
faces of nearly all the "moonlighters. "
In the trial which followed the Misses
Curtin identified the captain of the
'moonlighters as Teddy Casey, son of
a farmer living at Fries, and one of his
compani ms as his brother jeremiah.
Two more of the marauders they recog-
nized to be brothers named Sullivan,
and still two others as Terence Nc
Mahon and John Spring. All these
men were we'll known and In good
standing. The trial caused great bitter
ness against the Curtins. They declared
that the enmity of the moonlighters was
due to the fact that Mr.. Curtin always
paid his rent. The moonlighters, on
the other hand, asserted that they had
entertained no hostility against the Cur
tins, that the expedition to collect arms
had for its purpose the arming of the
peasantry for resistance to persecution,
and claimed that the fight in which Mr..
Curtin was killed was unnecessarily pro-
voked by his shooting at the men who
meant no violence to him and by the
desperate attempts of himself and his
family to unmask the invaders.
Popular sympathy was on the side of
the defendants in the trials, and the Cur
tin girls were boycotte In January,
1886, forty special policemen protected
the young women from violence even
during mass at the church of Fries. On
one occasion, Father O'Connor having
read an ordinance from the Bishop for
bidding the celebration of mass in the
church unless the demonstrations against
the Curtin girls ceased, that mass was
uninterrupted, but as soon as the con-
gregation was dismissed the people as
sembled outside TO boot the Misses Cur
tin as they passed out The crowd had
to be dispersed by the police, and the
girls had to be escorted home by large
force of officers. The women of the
church afterward broke up the Curtin
family pew and made bonfire of the
splinters.